[theforum] Treasurer's Report
Dean Mah
dean.mah at gmail.com
Thu Nov 2 19:10:02 UTC 2017
Thanks for the update, Dave! Good work, even if you missed the $5/month
penalty. I doubt that any one of us would have been any better at catching
it. It's nice to know that someone is still watching the register. And
thanks again for Neuro taking on the effort of the move and lowering the
costs. You two are officially evolt.org! :)
Dean
On Thu, Nov 2, 2017 at 9:57 AM, David Kaufman <david at gigawatt.org> wrote:
> Greetings evolters and evoltites!
>
> I decided to surprise you all with a Treasurer's report:
>
> Current Assets:
>
> PNC Bank $398.58
> PayPal 303.30
> ----------------------
> * Total $701.88*
>
> 2017 Revenue to-date:
>
> Donations $340.00
> Ads 102.32
> ----------------------
> * Total $442.32*
>
> 2017 Expenses to-date:
>
> PayPal Fees $19.96
> Bank Fees 30.00
> Domain Renewals 40.54
> Hosting 25.00
> -----------------------
> * Total $115.50*
>
>
> As you can see our new hosting provider Digital Ocean, has been giving us
> free service most of the year, which was great since hosting has always
> been our main expense. We expect that free service will "run out" in a few
> more months as it was the result of a "promotional credit" that DO just
> *gave* us for (iirc) few hundred dollars. So we saved up a little money
> this year!
>
> Just letting you know that I'm transferring $100 from PayPal into our PNC
> bank account because, after 13 years, the bank finally decided that our
> Free Non-Profit Business Checking account would no longer be free, unless
> we maintain a minimum balance of $500.
>
> I don't login to the bank account often, so I just noticed yesterday that
> they've started merrily stealing $5.00 per month out of our account! I
> looked back over the year's statements to find that this new monthly fee
> began being deducted back in May, and after reviewing the March, April and
> May statements (PDF's downloaded off their site -- I don't have them
> snail-mailed) I saw no notice informing us in advance of this new fee. So
> I called them up to complain loudly since:
>
> • firstly, as we only deposit around a $100 a year in (Google Adsense)
> revenue into that account, paying $60 a year for the privilege would make
> absolutely no sense at all,
>
> • and, more importantly! had we been informed of this fee we could have
> closed the account and not been charged $30 of the $100 we deposited this
> year!
>
> The customer service teenager on the phone was apologetic and assured me
> that they had "sent out notices". I explained that our account is set to
> "paperless" and although they HAVE our mailing address, I was certain I'd
> received no such notices in the mail, adding that they also have my correct
> telephone number and email address and that I was equally certain they had
> not contacted me through either of those channels either, to inform me that
> they were increasing the cost of our free checking account by infinity
> percent!
>
> He reiterated that "notices were sent out", adding that they "should have
> been printed on the back" of my statements. I reiterated that I'd reviewed
> both my March, April and May statements and couldn't resist the urge to
> then ask him (with all the seriousness i could muster) how one goes about
> "looking at the back" of a PDF. He stammered a bit there :-)
>
> So I asked him to refund the $30 they have charged us so far, and he said
> that he would have to have a manager call me back. I am still waiting for
> a manager to call me back.
>
> But then I looked back farther and found that they did include a notice on
> a couple of our statements, starting back in Oct, Nov, Dec of 2016 and a
> reminder in Feb of 2017 -- d'oh! that as of April 2017 we'd have to
> maintain a $500 minimum balance in order to avoid the new account
> maintenance fee of $5/month.
>
> Oddly, the notices weren't printed on "the back" of the PDF -- that would
> have been a neat trick! -- they were right there at the top, lol.
>
> So, we'd had about $433.58 in there after Google's last deposit of 102.32
> in January. Now its down to $398.58 after their underhanded $5 recurring
> thefts, these last seven months.
>
> But since they DID technically notify us -- I just didn't pay close enough
> attention to the statements -- I figured we have two options:
>
> Option #1. close the account and keep all our money in Paypal instead.
>
> Plan B. transfer $102 from PayPal to PNC bank to avoid further fees
>
> The indignant angry consumer side of me argues for option #1. But then
> google will have to start mailing checks made out to evolt, which I'd have
> to endorse, deposit into my personal bank account, and then transfer to
> Evolt's PayPal account, which is a pain in the drain.
>
> So I chose plan B, because the lazy me beats the indignant me every time.
>
>
> Last Year:
>
> 2016 was a very different year!
>
>
> Assets as of 2016-12-31:
>
> PNC Bank $331.26
> PayPal 75.76
> ----------------------
> * Total $407.02*
>
> 2016 Revenue:
>
> Donations $470.00
> Ads 0.00 (had just rec'd $101 in Oct 2015)
> ----------------------
> * Total $470.00*
>
> 2016 Expenses:
>
> PayPal Fees $27.73
> Bank Fees 0.00
> Domain Renewals 31.35
> Hosting 538.08
> -----------------------
> * Total $597.16*
>
>
> So, as you can see Neuro's initiative in migrating the site away from our
> old creeky $45/month dedicated server at SoftLayer, to a free GitHub site
> plus a couple virtual "droplet" instances at Digital Ocean has been a great
> success -- Thanks Neuro!
>
> Even after our free promotion honeymoon is over at DO, hosting costs there
> will be significantly less than half what we were paying SoftLayer. And
> Digital Ocean is a far coller vendor, especially since IBM bought SoftLayer
> and started making all the sysadmins there wear suits and garters on their
> socks.
>
> See you next year! ...or three!
>
> Thanks,
>
> -dave
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